Our God is great; listen to His words and understand! God knows what is in your hearts!

The message on Sunday was presented by JW Harle, the leader of the Young Life group that is bringing Christ Jesus to the youth of Mason. The scripture lesson is Luke 4:1-13 and his sermon was titled “Identity Theft”.

Who am I? Jesus wants to find out who we are, what we do in life. Are we successful or do we become depressed and blame others for our problems? The devil wants us to fail. We live and work to find our own identity where we replace our possessions with God in our hearts.

Who was Jesus? We know that His lineage can be traced back to Adam (Luke 3:13-38). He was 30 years old, had no disciples, but was baptized by John and filled with the Holy Spirit. He was carried away by the Spirit into the wilderness (Luke 4:1) where the devil tempted Him for 40 days. The devil was trying to steal His identity.

First, the devil said: “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread”. Jesus answered with scripture, saying: “It is written, It is not by bread alone that man can live, but by every word of God.”

Second, the devil took Jesus up to a high mountain and quickly showed Him all of the world and said: “I will give you all this power and glory,…If therefore you worship me, it will all be yours”. Jesus again quoted scripture: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve,”

Finally, the devil brought Jesus to Jerusalem, and made Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.” The adversary also reminded Jesus that scripture says: the angels are commanded to watch over you and will take you up in their arms so that your foot shall not strike a stone. Jesus answered: “It is said: You shall not tempt the Lord your God”.

And the devil departed for a while,

Our identity is not what we do, not what we have or what other people think of us. It’s who we know. Know God! Know that God loves you. He loves your identity. The devil is always trying to tempt you. We do what we do to make our identity pleasing to God. He knows what is in our hearts.

The Church Conference for Trinity UMC in Castell is next Sunday from 9:30-10:30 am. A combined worship service will be at the Art UMC at 11:00 am with District Superintendent Rev. Larry Altman preaching and serving communion. Then, the Art UMC will have their Charge Conference in the Fellowship Hall with a light lunch being served. Make plans to attend these important meetings.

Happy birthday greetings to Sloan Stewart Yates on Oct. 3rd. And a great birthday to both E. Wayne Jordan and Wayne C, Jordan on Oct. 8th.

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